To the Aggravation of Reality
by ellesra
Summary: Nothing last forever. Not even illusions. So now the child of Prophecy will have to pick up the pieces of his broken self, while trying to make sure the future turns out the way it is supposed to be.


**To the Aggravation of Reality**

_oo: An Overture of Destiny's_  
The sky was too blue. His shirt felt too soft against his hand, the orange hurt too little to look at in the sunlight, and he hadn't felt pain in who knows how long. Somehow, things were too perfect.

He was with his friends. They were laughing, smiling and chatting amiably among each other. Sleep had not claimed him for some time, yet he felt no sleepiness as of yet. Red hair brushed against his cheek as his mother chatted with someone across from him, Sakura, he thought. Sakura was smiling as well. They all were. Hands rubbed his shoulders soothingly, and it did not feel right. Phantom pains of a sickening of stomach that just _wasn't_ _there_ made him frown. The only one frowning. He'd never thought he'd be the one to have such a title. He was supposed to be grinning, but he hadn't been grinning in a long time either.

At his side, Sasuke tried to say something to him. His mother left the space behind him to sit on her husband's lap. They kissed, and someone, Inoichi, it must have been, told them to get a room.

"Hey dead-last, at least listen when people talk to you." The tone was lighthearted, and Naruto could hear the smile behind the teasing. Of course, he wasn't the dead-last anymore, but neither was Sasuke a bastard. The names had caught, though.

"Haha, sorry. What'd you say?" Naruto turned a grin towards his best friend. Sasuke started babbling again.

Naruto couldn't but phase it out, laughing and grinning and nodding to whatever was said.

This world was a waste. There was no reason, there was no evil, or even good. Generally, _everything_ was good. It didn't seem like the others had noticed, like they'd always been in this world. Naruto, though, felt wrong. Everything was perfect, and that was the wrongness of this world. Everyone was smiling, no one was fighting, and peace was everlasting. This had been what he'd wanted, or at least he thought so. Yet everything was hazy, and Naruto couldn't remember what had been _before_ this. Had there been anything before this?

Abruptly, he rose. "Hey, just going to the bathroom," he informed. Sasuke scoffed good-naturedly, and turned to the person next to him. His brother. He joined their conversation.

As Naruto walked away, he wanted to cry. It was all wrong, yet it was all supposed to be right. In his pocket was a knife, one of the few things to remind him of something else. _What, _he didn't know. Perhaps someone had given this throwing knife to him at some point in his life. It was well used, that he could at least see. He could grasp the hilt, but the blade was untouchable. He attempted to bring it to his arm once more. It went through. And now he was home, in his apartment. It hadn't been long since he'd moved from his parents' house. Somehow, he never could relax around them. They were his most beloved people, yet they felt so wrong, so fake, so not-supposed-to-be-there.

With his index he poked his stomach. The hard muscles gave way only slightly. Naruto pressed harder. He pressed so hard he finally felt pain, felt _something_. The finger had penetrated the skin, and it was going through his muscles slowly. Energy flowed to his arms, and he pressed more fingers into the skin of his stomach. Blood started to seep, yet it disappeared before falling to the floor. Soon, he had his whole hand _inside_ his stomach. Blue eyes widened in fascination. He could feel blood, feel organs, feel bones and veins. The hand curled into a fist, around something soft, and he pulled. Out came half an organ, and some veins. The pain wasn't very overwhelming. For the first time in weeks, Naruto smiled. He could feel. It was a constant, deep pain, and a haze felt like it lifted from his mind.

Then there was _real_ pain. It was so much more intense, so much stronger than the hazed one. The surroundings darkened, yet not because he was fainting. No, another kind of surroundings appeared, darkened and cavern-like. Before him stood a gigantic statue. Its eyes were glowing, and when he looked around through a cloud of pain, there were other people there. Millions of other people. What could he do? His stomach was bleeding furiously, and he still had something that might be a liver in his hand. He crawled forwards, over bodies deeply asleep, towards the statue. It glowed more the closer he came. Something flared inside him. There was something in that statue that he knew, something red and furious and _tailed_.

"Kurama?" he coughed out, blood seeping from his lips. The statue glowed ever more ferociously. Naruto had come to the foot of it, the large feet more like roots than stone. His hand rested on it, and suddenly, blue chakra pooled around him. It was_ his_ chakra, and how he had missed the look of it. His lifeforce was _there_, he could control it and feel it and _touch_ it!

Then a grumbling started. It built itself up so gradually; Naruto almost didn't hear it at first. The room was completely silent without it, though, so he soon noticed. It ascended into a roar, like some wild beast screaming for its life. Red chakra started to pool out of the statue. Some of it felt familiar, but there was something different. The familiar chakra was blended into another kind of chakra, or rather several other kinds, as if to make it whole. And it _felt_ more whole than before.

"Kurama!" Naruto said more forcefully. A smile grazed his face. Tired and worn out, yet stretching his muscles and feeling so _real_. He had never felt so real before.

The pain ascended as well, as the red chakra entered his body and all he could do was to _scream_, as loud and harshly as his unused throat could manage.

The blackness wouldn't come. Thus he was left lying there, supported by the root, as pain wrecked his body, tore it to pieces, then set it back together with a sledgehammer.

What was left was a blank gaze and muttering lips, a lack of light behind the iris and just soft, sweet _numbness_.

_(w_e **w**_**i**__l__l _**s****a**_v_e **t**_H__e__**B**_o**y**_)_

_o1: A Relapse of Beginnings_

One gaze directed at him immediately told him who he was. It was strange, seeing him after all this time, laid before him like a sacrifice at an altar. Unconscious, yet alive, which in itself was quite the miracle. How he could be alive, after twelve years in the stomach of the Shinigami, only the Death God himself could tell.

Sarutobi directed his eyes back at Orochimaru. His student looked as surprised at seeing Minato as the current Hokage was. Since Orochimaru couldn't see the Death God , he must be confused as to where Minato had appeared from.

"I wouldn't think you'd sink so low as to summon someone as well, dear Sensei. Perhaps I was the student most like you after all," Orochimaru smiles humourlessly, his two summoned advancing upon Sarutobi. A genjutsu is launched, and the Hokage finds himself in complete darkness.

Minato was unconscious, though, or perhaps even dead. Sarutobi could not expect any help from that front.

"I need no such jutsu," the Hokage says as he is cut from somewhere in the dark.

"I am the Sandaime Hokage, and I will protect my village with my own power!" he declares in a strong voice, then makes a hand seal. "Fuuin Jutsu."

"_Shiki Fuujin."_

_(__**y**__**o**_**u **w_I_**L**l ne_e_**D **_**help**__)_

Blue eyes glowed. Whiskers lengthened, chakra swirling around their body in waves. The head of their vessel is pounding with the strain, while the stomach heals itself quite immediately.

Then they are no longer standing beside the tall Death God. Black hair and slanted eyes, _enemy_, and they grab him with corrosive chakra and throw him to the ground. _They know the snake_, for they can see him in their memories. Though he'd be looking quite different, he's the same in chakra and soul.

"Wh- Minato? How is this possible?"

Speaking is for mortals, so he merely crouches down atop the snake, grabbing his throat. A fanged grin lights up the face that _should_ be smiling. Then he is ripping out the throat, tearing apart the chest, crushing the head, crushing the pelvis, crushing the knees. And when there is no more to crush, and he notices the sword in his back, he turns towards the grey-haired man beside him. He looks close to dying, but he is crawling over either way. A hand, the Shinigami's hand, takes a hold of the soul in the crushed body in front of him. It shows no resistance.

"Minato… You…" the bloodied smile grazes his lips. Had monsters cared for old men, they would have told him that neither they nor their vessel responded by such a name, but they just looked at him. Their eyes are more than one colour now, but only the dead Hokage notices.

"I… Am happy you… Got out. Hope it wasn't too… Hellish." With another smile, the Third Hokage's soul is pulled out of his body, and eaten by the shinigami along with three others.

The field around them is going down. Some ninja look for Orochimaru. They are slaughtered like their master.

"Is he an enemy nin?"

"Hey, you saw him kill those Sound ninja. Anyway, can't you see who he is!?"

"Is… Is that the Fourth Hokage!?"

More and more people were gathering around. One in particular caught their eye. There were strong emotions concerning that man inside the broken man.

"Take care of this body," they command the silverhaired man, whose eyes are unmatched yet they widen together. Then they withdraw from control, from the forefront of their vessels mind. And darkness envelops them all.

_(_**t**hE _w_o_r_ld wi_l_l d_i__S_**a**p_**p**__e__A_r **a****gA****i**_**n**_ if _y_O**u** S_**l**__e_**E**p i_t_ a_**w**__aY_, l_**i**__ttl_E veS_s_e_**l**__)_

The pain was unbelievable. Yet a soothing hand was all it took, and the pain faded to something akin to the dreamworld. However, that was unacceptable. He was not going in there again. He was not running away. They couldn't take his pain away. They couldn't. How could they? He'd kill them. No, but… He'd do anything to be in the real world again. They couldn't take reality away from him _again_.

"Stop!" he tries to shout. The soothing touch stops. Naruto sighs, smiles, and goes to sleep again.

He can _sleep_. He can feel pain and he can sleep. This is… His eyes open abruptly, forcibly, for his eyelids are almost stitched together. Or so it feels like.

Pupils widen as they take in the massive amount of _offensive_ light. It hurts. He can't see, yet he's so happy he wants to shout and jump and grin. He wants to grin. Like an idiot.

A dark shape stands in the way of his sun. Blue eyes turn to glare at it- _her,_ and she is so familiar, it feels like he just saw her. And he did, for she was one of the ones who'd been around the table. Smiling with her long-haired love, instructing her nephew in table manners. Cradling her child.

"_Tsunade?_" he croaks in disbelief. She looks older, yet younger, and he feels the corners of the too-perfect graze by his mind. She nods, writing something down on a board.

"What is your name?" she speaks, and her voice is clear and beautiful and _hurting his ears_ all at the same time, and he can't help but laugh.

"Where are we? How did you escape? Was you the one who healed me?" his voice is near to cracking, but he speaks fast and enthusiastically nonetheless. Turning his head to look around more thoroughly, he can feel how stiff his neck is. It's wonderful.

"Did everyone else also get out? Were they sad? I think they might be sad. I was the only one who noticed, after all. Did you notice as well? You seemed so happy, like all the rest. Maybe I was just living in my own illusion…"

The frown on the young face of his friend stopped him in his tracks. "What's wrong? Were… They returned to being dead, didn't they? But maybe that's better. I mean… I'm sorry for your loss. But I lost my parents too, y'know? Uhm… Did your child… Disappear?" With his usual lack of tact, this might just become a disaster. He flinched with his last sentence. _Why did he say _that!? It's like he wanted her to kill him.

Tsunade's frown was even more prominent on her face now.

"I am sorry, I don't think I remember your name?" Her voice was falsely cheerful, yet Naruto could hear the dangerous undertone.

"Haha, you're kidding, right baa-chan?" Naruto grins widely, then falters as she frowns even more harshly.

"I'm Naruto!"

_(__**b**__E__ cA_**r**_e__F__u__**l**__**w**_h_**A**__t _o**f**_Y__**o**_u_ s_**a**Y_)_

It was fourteen days since he came there. His shoulders were stiff from tensing, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, his jaw tired from screaming.

However much they hurt him, he always healed. And really, the Kyuubi's healing capabilities had been nothing compared to this. What he could heal in one night formerly, now healed in seconds. And if there was nothing to heal, if something had been torn from his body, then it _grew back_.

It was amazing. Unfortunately, it did not help his case at all.

"So, tell me again. Who are you? What are you doing in Konoha? Did you kill our Hokage?"

Naruto looked up at the bald man. Ibiki. Morino Ibiki.

Shaking his head, he closed his eyes. He was so tired. However, he did not long for the time he did not need to sleep. He never would, he'd come to believe, though already he wanted to kill himself in the madness sleeplessness caused.

"Ibiki… San. Why is Konoha doing this to me? I'm… Here to help. I've always been here to help." His throat is parched, his breaths coming out in ragged gasps. His mouth can no longer speak more complex sounds.

"Naruto, was it? How come you're the wrong age, and how can there be two of you? And why don't your blood match? You should just let go of this ruse. It's a miracle your disguise has even lasted this long."

There was silence. The ragged gasps became ragged breaths, with a strange wheezing sound coming from the back of his throat.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes narrowed. The pupils of his eyes turned into thin slits. Ibiki stood his ground, yet the blond-haired vessel noticed how the other ninja reached for his kunai pouch. A sad grin surfaced.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stay here. I've realized something, and I just can't let that happen." A sudden whirl of wind chakra cut all his restraints. For the first time in two weeks, Naruto could stand straight. He stretched his arms, as he could see Ibiki start to shiver as Naruto's chakra reached him.

It was sad, really, how little his determination counted, when it came down to it. When the village recognized him for himself, it was all right. However, even Konoha treated suspicious strangers with pain. Everything to make the truth come to the surface.

As Ibiki fell to the floor, Naruto walked out the reinforced steel doors. The last week or so he had gathered enough information (or rather, processed it), so that he could properly tell the time and place. It seemed that he'd come back to the aftermath of the chuunin exams. He would have thought it was an illusion, if not for his prolonged experience with genjutsu. No, this was not such a thing.

That meant that Sasuke would soon leave, if he hadn't already left. Naruto needed to know. If he could stop the bastard from ever going to Orochimaru in the first place, so much would be saved.

So maybe he'd keep that promise after all.

The corridors had guards, but they were quick to faint with a whiff of demonic chakra. It was amazing, this power… It was so much stronger than Kurama. Well, Naruto still missed his foxy friend, but this was a better option. Maybe he could finally beat Madara and Obito. Maybe… They wouldn't be caught in the genjutsu again.

The doors out of the place were sealed. Naruto could have easily solved it, given a couple of hours, but he was in no mood to do so. He still felt slightly betrayed at the way the Leaf had treated him. He understood it, but he did not want to acknowledge what evil even Konoha would resort to, if met with something like this.

Of course, that was the life of a shinobi, but such a thing had never been something Naruto accepted in this world. He had fought for peace so that such a thing would not need to exist. And he would fight again, for the exact same purpose.

_(_**g**_r__a_**S**_p __Y_**o**U_**r**__ f__**a**_T_e,__** l**__i__T_**T**l**e**_ v__e_s_s_**e**_L)_

Somehow, it was all different.

Not only was Sasuke still in Konoha, 9 days after he should have left. No, it was not that simple.

Sasuke was in the hospital again. This time for a more physical injury, however. His right thigh was encased in bandages, underneath which Naruto guessed there were a lot of stitches. It was an injury Naruto had never seen Sasuke with, and, somehow, it scared him.

The hospital room was dark, filled with night, and various monitoring devices were humming softly. The machines and the blood on the bandages betrayed how fragile his state really was. The strange-feeling eyes of Naruto could barely glimpse sweat on the Uchiha's cold skin, which Naruto barely touched before flinching away. What had happened? Was the past so fragile, its familiar course could break just with his arrival? As he pondered, he could not remember doing anything of importance. Other than occupying a hospital bed. Getting treatment from Tsunade. Being led to interrogation.

Had him preoccupying their attention really changed the timeline to such a degree? Perhaps Orochimaru, instead of recruiting Sasuke, had decided to kill him?

That would be strange, but also a blessing in disguise. That would mean that Naruto wouldn't have to make the last Uchiha stay in the village after all. Maybe he himself could offer him training. Offer the power that his best friend seemed to lust after at this age. Then slowly persuade him to choose another path. Tell him the truth of Itachi.

"Who are you then? Another lackey of Orochimaru's, hell-bent on revenge?" The voice was cold, angry, not at all like Naruto remembered it. Yet he did remember it. How could he not? He'd spent good parts of his life listening to the careless orders uttered by that voice.

"Ka-" he started, but stopped himself in time not to give away too much. He wanted them to know who he was. He ached for the old familiarity of his friends. It was not to be, though. Not yet, at least.

They weren't ready. They'd lock him up again.

"So it seems you do know who I am." Still cold. Naruto clenched his fists, squeezed his eyes shut. It was kind of painful.

"What happened to him?" He just had to ask. There was no way he would let anyone get away with this. Not after he'd been given a chance to do it all anew.

"Your good buddy Yakushi Kabuto was a little too sloppy, it seems. But no matter. Sasuke will be fine. He, however… Well." A chuckle escaped him, yet it was more like a cackle, with its malicious nature. A leer, perhaps. Either way, it made shivers travel down Naruto's spine.

"Kakashi… I…" It's hard to know what to say, when you can't tell someone the truth.

"I'm glad you came back from your mission in time." The words were fragile at best, and though they sounded mysterious, Naruto also mused at how pathetic they must seem to Kakashi. However, he needed to know one more thing before he left. Now that lightning had stopped crackling around Kakashi's fingers, it seemed the best time to ask.

"Where was Kabuto buried? I trust you didn't burn him." Mismatched eyes narrowed once more, turning from surprise to wariness in the course of milliseconds.

The answer was the careful drawing of a kunai, and a tensing of muscles.

Naruto disappeared before the kunai was even thrown.

* * *

**A/N: **This story might never be continued. It might not be updated in a long while. It might even cease to exist someday. However, if I keep having an interest in it, I will keep it up. Because that's how I work.

So, yeah. Had to post this before the next Naruto chapter gets out. Then I can still say in all honesty that my story is within the boundaries of canon. For now.

So yeah. Hope you enjoyed.

_Ellesra_


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